Spartan Stories
by toukankunshu
Summary: a series of one shot stories revolving around some orininal characters i created. Rated M just incase.
1. Chad

Name: Chad

Spartan tag: G-014

Home world: Mars

Date of Birth: October 28, 2525

Date of death: assumed KIA. After premature detonation of explosive charge on a later mission.

Gender: Male

Height: 6'9"

Hair Color: blond

Cybernetics: Spartan neural uplink

Skin: fair

Affiliation: ONI

Rank: N/A

Specialty: survival

Team roll: N/A

Battle: battle against Flood infection on isolated station, and several small scale skirmishes with covenant loyalists after the end of the war.

Status: assumed KIA

Class: Spartan III Gamma Company

Armor: SPI Mk 3

Appearance: same as the traditional SPI armor only it has been made more compact by ONI scientists. It also has a pack like attachment for a battery pack that powers energy shields

He sprinted through the corridors, his armor landing with heavy foot falls as he attempted to fall back, or get into shelter. Up ahead he saw a storage room, he jumped in and shut the door behind him, and pushed several crates to block the door.

He looked down at his armor, and toggled off the active camouflage, slowly his armor faded back into view, a dull metallic grey. His armor was an experimental MK 3 version of SPI armor featuring a slightly more compact design, and shields, as well as more advance camouflage plaiting.

His experimental Mk 3 SPI armor was covered in tiny scratches, but no real damage had been done to it. In all honesty he wanted o just leave this hell hole, he was running from something, they looked like the human that operated this space station, but they weren't. Did the covenant use some new Bio weapon on them? They were monstrous and deformed, they looked, almost … dead. They destroyed the long sword bomber the only sure fire way off this ship. His only option now was an escape pod. But before this he had to send whatever those were on a one way trip to hell. He reached for the SMG's that he had attached to the magnetic panels on his hips, his HUD sprung to life as the armor recognized the weapon. He checked he had 4 full clips left. Any normal soldier would be screwed, but he was a SPARTAN, secretly he relished situations like this. One way or another he would come out on top.

He looked through the window in the door, and saw several vaguely human Husks sprint past and another few on the way. He shoved the crates out of the way of the door, and jumped into the hallway, he sprayed the advancing Husks with bullets from both SMGs, and some dropped instantly with a small pop from the chest, others, were torn limb from limb, just as the clips in the SMG ran dry , the last one died on the advancing front, the things that ran past a second ago, turned around and begun to advance on him, he attached one SMG to the magnetic strip on his thy and reloaded the clip, just as the first one came into striking distance.

The Husk pulled back a gnarled twisted hand, but was stopped when his fist found its way into what he assumed was its face. It staggered backwards. He turned around, and let loose a burst of bullets into the chest of another one as he struck the first with his elbow, it dropped after the devastating blow, several more advanced on him. He reached for his lower back and closed his hand around, a frag grenade; he pulled it loose, and started to count

1…2… he pulled the pin …3… the Husks jumped at him… 4… he dropped the grenade on the floor … 5 ... he dove out of the way … 6… the things landed on the live grenade, than Boom. The Husks were torn to shreds. He rose to his feet.

"Mess with the best and you die like the rest." He said nonchalantly before he stood up and brushed off some little chunks of … actually he'd rather not know what they were.

He reviewed in his head what happened. When he was on Reach he was given no orders so when his sector evacuated military personnel he left alone on a Longsword fighter. However, he decided to go to a military space station instead of the evac coordinates. Now he found himself on a space station. When he arrived he saw nothing, everything looked like everybody just dropped what they were doing, and left. He walked through the hallways looking for anybody and he finally found in the cargo bay several smashed Pelicans that had organic growth all over their hulls. He saw several bulb like crawling creatures scuttling around and several Husk like crew members. He saw them dragging corpses to the small ones where they burrowed into the body and changed it. He opened fire and they started dropping fast but he was slowly overwhelmed and forced to run. Now only an hour later they were everywhere.

He grabbed the second SMG and reloaded its clip before heading off down the hallway. He suddenly saw hundreds of the onion like crawling creatures swarm the hallway he fired a few runs and dozens of them burst.

'The little things explode…NICE' he thought as he grinned from behind his visor.

A few more rounds and they were gone. He continued on down the hallway, reloading his SMG now he was out of clips. He continued waking to an elevator shaft where he hit the call button. When it arrived, he reached inside and sent it to the basement. He pried the doors apart and climbed up a service ladder; just before reaching the next floor, he reactivated his armors SPI plating. His outline dissipated and he blended into the steely dark grey elevator shaft. He pried the door apart and looked over; he saw one of the humanoid Husks just in front of him looking down the hallways. He pulled out his knife from its nylon sheathe on his thigh before springing onto the landing twisting the Husk to the floor and stabbing it in the torso causing its chest cavity to burst open where tentacles were coming out. He replaced his knife in its sheathe, and drew his SMG and began walking towards the control room.

He heard an explosion from behind him, and saw the elevator shaft erupting with flames, and from it leapt several more Husk like creatures, but these more alien in nature.

'Covenant? The hell are these things'

He fires a spray at the Husk like creatures and they drop. He began walking down when he heard a strange scuttling noise from behind him. He looked back and saw the little things crawling all over the bodies. He saw one climb inside of the bodies, causing it to spasm before climbing to its feet. He had time enough to pull out a grenade, pull the pin, and toss it to the mass. When the smoke settled he saw, that some of the Husks were standing again, dismembered but standing.

He pulled his SMGs from the magnetic holsters and sprayed out the last of his bullets. The two Husk like creatures were dead, but he was out of ammo.

"Stupid…Zombies."

"_th….NS…. lex…. Re…Me?" _a static muffled voice came over his helmet speakers,

"Repeat" he said on open frequencies

"This is UNSC Lexington, do you read me?" said a female voice over his helmet speakers

"Solid Copy, this is Spartan Gamma-014."

"What's the status on the space station, it dropped out of contact a few days ago."

"Crew's dead, killed by a covenant bio weapon … I think. It looks like it got some of their own though."

"What's your opinion Spartan?"

"This place needs to burn." He said almost immediately

"Go for it, the Techs want to tap into your video feed."

"Transmitting." He said as he open the feed to the ship.

He began to walk back to the two dead Husk like creatures, and flipped one over and inspected it the video feed showing the technicians on board the Lexington what he saw. He was inspecting the Husk when he spotted what appeared to be the handle for a Covenant Energy Sword. He grabbed it and pulled it loose. He tested the blade by activating it and cutting through the body of the Husk, it went through it like butter.

He looked over the second body, and found a Spiker. He grabbed it and attached it to the magnet on his right hip and the sword on his left. He walked down the hallway, slowly making his way to the control room where he hoped to find a way to destroy the station. He rounded a corner and saw his favorite sign ever.

ARMORY

He opened the doors, and looked about, the place was mostly empty, but they still had battle rifles, MA5Bs, and SMGs. His guess was that the workers armed themselves to hold off those things. So any weapons they had were now mostly scattered about the station. He grabbed a battle rifle, and an assault rifle and attached them to the magnetic strips on his back before taking an SMG in each hand. Heading out of the room, he heard an unearthly wailing moan, he ran out of the room, SMG's leveled in front of him. He walked into a large central atrium, most likely used for meetings. He glanced around when he saw dozens upon dozens of Husks on higher levels and along the walls.

The Husks charged him, leaping down from higher levels, attempting to land on him, or rush him. He sprayed into the horde of Husks. Several of them started dropping, either ripped apart by the hardened bullets, from the SMG's or the strange scuttling things burst in their chest. The clips clicked empty, after 20 Husks dropped, he sprinted to the nearest one, raised the SMG's in the air and smashed them booth down on the nearest one, the handles cracked and he left the guns embedded in its body.

He reached behind him and pulled out the MA5B, and started firing a short controlled burst into one after another before ducking under a wide swing from one of them. He brought up his MA5B and smashed the butt into its back, causing it to collapse to the floor. He downed several more with controlled bursts. Several more Husks dropped down behind him, he spun on his heal and let loose a storm of bullets on the Husks. He then pulled his knife out and flipped it over in his hand and tossed it at an oncoming Husk; it promptly stumbled to the floor.

"Spartan, we just got an update from command. The creatures you're fighting are called Floods." Said the woman on the other end of the speaker.

One of the Flood lunged at him, he grabbed its outstretched arm planted his foot in its chest and pulled. Tearing its arm off and crushing its chest. He emptied the clip in the assault rifle before he dropped it to the ground. He grabbed the Energy Sword and Spiker.

"The Flood have three basic forms that they come in. A combat form, the ones you're fighting now, infection form, the small crawling ones, and a carrier form, they look like sacks with legs." Said the voice on the other end of the com

He ducked under another Flood, as it tried to take his head off, but a quick slash with the energy sword took care of it. He opened fire with the spiker; the shots tore through the diminishing number of Flood. However, the spiker ran dry, leavening a good dozen Flood left. He switched the spiker to his left hand and held it at the ready, blade stretched before him. He charged the Flood, slicing through them one after another. He stabbed a Flood through the middle with his blade, and left it before, twisting around and bringing the bladed end of the spiker down on another, before grappling another Flood and tearing its arm off.

After another minute it was just him and the last Flood, he charged it grabbed it by the shoulder and tore out the infection form that was in control and crushing it in his hand. He shook off bits of Flood from his armor before walking to retrieve his equipment. Afterward he rifled through the piles of Flood looking for any ammunition he could use. He found a few clips for the Battle rifle and the assault rifle. He started to leave the room when he took note of the still active energy sword.

He walked back to grab it, when he suddenly felt like a truck slammed into his shoulder. The blow sent him tumbling over. He checked his HUD his shields were gone. He rolled back to his feat and turned around, he caught a glimpse of a Flood combat form with a shotgun leveled at his head, he dove out of the way, as it fired a second shot before charging it, and ripping the shotgun from its hands and firing a shot into its chest, tearing it to shreds.

"Great they can use guns. 'This day keeps getting worse.' What's next, driving? 'I hope to God not'"

"G-014, what's your status?" said the woman over his com

"I'm still alive."

He kept the shotgun leveled and began to walk out of the room. As he did the energy sword deactivated and his shields recharged. He exited the central atrium and entered along hallway. He encountered a few more combat forms, but a blast from the shotgun each kept them down. He climbed the stairs to the next floor up.

This was the level where he would find the control room. He pried open the doors to the floor, and quickly saw that the room was filled with some spore like particles floating in the air, he also heard the sound of raspy breathing fill the hallway, before it abruptly stopped.

'Strange.' He thought to himself.

He heard the sound of rapid heavy foot fall in front of him. He saw a dark misshapen figure sprinting down the hallway, before leaping over him and disappearing down the stairs. For a moment, he considered chasing it, but decided against it he needed to get to the control room. Luckily, for him no more Flood impeded him, he made it to the control room and accessed the main console.

"This is Chad, how do I over load the reactor on this thing?" he spoke into his com hoping for a understandable reply

"Just transfer control of the station to us, we will do it remotely."

"Got it... and ... Good, you should have control"

"Great job, now get the hell out of there."

"How long before it blows?"

"5 minutes at best."

"At worse how long do I have?"

"2 minutes."

"I'm really beginning to hate today." He said as he began sprinting out of the room. "Where's the nearest escape pod?"

"A floor down through the atrium, make a left, they should be on the outside wall."

"Rodger." he started sprinting out of the control room and headed down the stairs. He saw some combat forms charge to meet him, he simply fired his shotgun, downing then as he sprinted onwards, leaping over the bodies as he past. It only took him half a minute to reach the atrium, where he slowed down for a second, and proceeded slower, he heard the loud raspy breathing again.

He walked half way through the atrium before something heavy landed behind him. He turned around on the spot, only to see a reflective polarized orange visor.

"The hell is another sp..." he never got to finish that sentence. He was hit square in the chest, by an impossibly hard blow that sent him flying. He quickly rolled to his feat and leveled the shotgun. Before him stood, what would appear at first glance to be a Spartan, but in actuality wasn't. Before him stood what he assumed was a Spartan at one point in time.

This thing had wore the leg guards for SPI armor and the right arm, as well as the helmet of the. Its left arm had outgrown the armor casing causing it to crack off the arm was a pail pasty flakey green, it was still vaguely human, only thicker, and with bone like thorns randomly along the length, its hands were clawed . Its chest had been encased in a thick organic ribcage like armor. The helmet was cracked across horizontally where the mouth was, and looked like it had barbs sticking through the framing attaching it to the face. On its back was a fleshy sack that was around the size of an overstuffed backpack. In its right hand, it held the energy sword that he left in the room. It activated the blade and stared him down.

"What the fuck are you?" he said as he quickly swapped the shotgun for the Assault Rifle. He raised the gun and opened fire; the thing merely sprinted of to the side, avoiding the burst of bullets by a narrow margin. He kept firing on the creature, but it suddenly changed path and leapt into the air, twisted around and landed behind him, and lashed out with the sword. He managed to back away in time but he dropped the two hopelessly broken pieces of the rifle to the ground, before pulling out the shotgun. He fired a shot at the creature. The creature jerked backwards but lashed out again with the sword. He pulled his head back in time to avoid decapitation. He lashed out with the stock of the gun striking the thing in the head a loud crunch sounded as chunks of the visor fell away. The thing lunged at him again, and slammed its fist into his gut before raising its arm and slamming it down on his head, his shields flared and collapsed, he rolled onto his back in time to see the sword coming for his chest. He rolled out of the way, and sprang to his feet. The thing pulled the blade from the floor, and lunged again and again at him. He ducked under one of the blows, and slammed his fist into its throat, with enough power to send it to the ground. He planted his boot on the arm holding the sword, and his other on the things now exposed throat. He reached for his Battle rifle and held it level at the things head.

"**You fight with unparalleled furry, but you can't match our strength Spartan. You will fall before either the covenant or our legions." **The creature attempted to pull his leg from its throat. **"You will fall to us like ALL before you, the forerunners failed, their Rings didn't kill us, they didn't end our conquest of the galaxy, merely delayed it. And you, you who fight with archaic weapons, DARE DEFY US!" **an explosion was heard from several floors down. **"WE will never forget, WE will never end, and WE will last!"**

"Taire et aller en enfer." He shot a burst into its head; the things body jerked and went limp. He sprinted out of the atrium and followed both the signs, and directions he was given earlier. He stumbled slightly as a large explosion rocked the station violently. He saw the pods in front of him. A hundred feed away, with noting between him, and it, but a good 30 Flood. He pulled out the Battle rifle and started moving forward steadily firing burst after burst, dropping the Flood left and right. When the clip clicked empty he dropped the rifle, and pulled out his knife, and made a run for it, he was half way there and past all the Flood, when that strange thing dropped down from in front of it, its helmet cracked open revealing a deformed over stretched human face. He tackled into it and pushed forward, before jumping up and planting his feet into its chest, crushing it upon landing and ramming his knife into its chest, and dragging it across. He left the knife and dove into the pod, sealed the door, and hit the launch by the pilots seat. As the door sealed he heard the thing say one last thing

**"The Gravemind will end you."**

He wasn't sure if this was a warning or a prophecy; but it didn't matter now, he sat in the pilot's seat and began to work the controls. When the station blew up. He tried to pull the pod out of the way of debris, but was too slow, a large chunk of burning semi molten hull slammed into the side of the pod sending it reeling away. He was slammed into the side of the pods window with force to smash through the glass, and like all the air in the ship, he was pulled into the vacuum of space.

"G-014 do you read what your status is?" came the woman voice over his helmets comm.

"Still alive, but I'm floating in the vacuum of space ... could I get picked up."

"No problem Spartan, sending in a Longsword ETA 5 minutes."

"On second thought...today wasn't too bad." He grinned mischievously as he latched onto a chunk of debris.


	2. Aella

Name: Aella (Greek) name of Amazonian warrior killed by Hercules

Spartan tag: A-273

Home world: borne on earth, before moving to Edranus II where she was taken from family.

Date of Birth: November 12, 2525

Date of death: MIA-assumed KIA after being tackled off cliff by Elite of unknown Rank

Gender: Female

Height: 6'10"

Hair Color: Black

Cybernetics: Spartan Neural Uplink

Skin: a light tan

Affiliation: UNSC

Rank: GySgt.

Specialty: Recon, Assassination, Stealth Ops.

Team roll: Recon

Battles: no major battles on record however as done several scouting operations, and assassination hits.

Status: MIA

Class: Spartan III Alpha Company

Armor: moljiner Mk 5 [B]

Helmet: Operator

Chest: collar breacher

Shoulder-R: ODST

Shoulder-L: Mk 5

Wrist: Tatictal U GPS

Utility: tactical soft case on right leg. Tactical trauma on left.

Knee: Grenadier

Knife: under left arm

Color: olive, stele.

Aella sat on a bench in the well lit metallic hallway of ONI Gauntlet Base awaiting her next set of orders, she was still dressed in her Armored ODST gear having not received SPI armor, but supposedly according to the dossier she was sent that problem would soon be solved. She ran a hand through her short black hair, and ran her hand over her right ear lobe where it was torn, when she was in boot camp she refused to remove her earrings, and they got caught on something and tore through her ear, of course she could get it fixed whenever she wanted but it was never important so she just let it be. She shifted slightly in order to get the armor more comfortable, but unable to do so she simply ignored the discomfort. The door across the hall from her slid opened and a young woman stepped out clad in the standard dress uniform.

"Ma'am the colonel is ready to see you, sorry for the weight, he got a rather disturbing call from colonel Holland and was detained."

"It's alright" she said, as she stood up, a hint of a Greek accent clung to her words. She walked through the doors, helmet under her arm, the woman following in toe. She entered the office, which was divided into two rooms, she was directed to go through the door at the end behind a desk by the woman, who proceeded to sit behind the desk and get to work on some documents that were left around.

She walked through the door, and saw an elderly man behind the desk. She stood at attention and saluted.

"At ease ma'am, and takes a seat." Said the colonel "I'm not sure you know, having just returned from a mission and all, but reach is under attack by the covenant." Said the admiral

"I had heard that."

"And they requested that aide be sent in all forms possible. Now you are currently one of Earths most valuable asset in the war against the covenant. So we decided that you be sent. However the call I just received from Holland revealed how dire the situation is on reach so we decided that we would step up the time table on something we were making for you. Now follow me." Said the colonel as he stood up and walked out of the room briskly.

The colonel led her through hallway after hallway until they reached an unmarked door with a pass word lock. The colonel pressed a few buttons and the door slid open. He led her into the room, which was unlit, but with her enhanced senses, there was lighting enough. At the other end of the room there was a raised platform that had a thick black curtain hanging hiding something from view.

"Good you're here, we just finished." Came a voice from behind the curtain. A second later a man in his early 30's walked out from behind the curtain. He wore a standard technician's uniform. "Ok. Now originally we were hoping to send you off in a suit of SPI armor, however, a better piece of equipment was made available, and we just couldn't send you off in SPI armor with that at hand."

"What is this piece of equipment you want to put me in?"

The technician pulled the curtain aside revealing a suit of Mjolnir armor, the armor was composed of an operator variant helmet, Ua/Base security chest plate, ODST left shoulder guard, and a Mk 5 right shoulder guard the left wrist had a heavy bracer, the right calf was a tactical trauma kit, and on the left was tactical soft case, that extended to the knee from the hip, and grenadier knee pads.. The armor was an olive color with steely grey details.

"What you're looking at is a suit of Mjolnir Mk V B variant armor, parts of the armor were switched out to best suit you."

"I thought the Mjolnir armor system was reserved for Spartan II's, why do I get one."

"Well currently you are one of the oldest Spartan III's and you have the most field experience, and we just decided you're worth giving it to, try not to prove us wrong." Said the technician, as he beckoned me over to the platform next to the armor. "Hold still" said the technician, Aella did so, and several other technicians began stripping her of her old armor, after that was done, one did something to her neural uplink. The technician that had been speaking with began to tell her about the armor she was wearing. "Ok well this armor system itself is quite special. Probably the most advanced the UNSC has at its disposal, but it costs a ton of money to make. The armor system, is quite complex. But we can tell you more once your suited up, and used to the armor, and on our way to reach." said the technician as he helped some others start putting the armor on. The process was complicated but the armor was finally on after a good 20 minutes. The technician slipped the helmet on over her head, and stepped back to a compute console, and started typing in commands. "Alright, stand back… powering up Armor. In 3, 2, 1."

The armors systems sprung to life, the heads up display showed all sorts of different windows for a second before it went blank, and a bar appeared in the upper left corner, a loading bar.

"Everything should be going perfectly now, so the armor is running a self diagnostic. When the diagnostic finishes, the armor will unlock, take care not to move quickly, the armor accelerates your movements start slowly until you get used to moving again." Said the technician.

The diagnostic finished shortly after and she attempted to step down off the platform. But the motion was indeed accelerated, the motion, sent her foot slamming into the steel floor, the sound of the impact was as loud as a gunshot, the motion caused her to start to fall backwards as her leg rebounded, she immediately attempted to correct herself, but wound up just dropping to her knees.

"Told you to take it easy." said the technician "try to make a few hand signs before you stand up at least just to get the idea on how to move you body." He added the last part quickly as she was about to attempt to stand.

"ok." She began to slowly make the basic hand signs that all Spartans used; slowly her movements became more accurate, controlled and quicker; soon enough she was able to move her hands like before she was in the new armor. She slowly got to her feat and. Started walking around. She was awkward as all hell, but eventually all her movements returned to normal.

"Alright good, you can move again… the colonel is waiting for you on the Savannah we'll be taking a warthog to the dry dock." Said the engineer "Oh I haven't introduced myself yet, my name call me Grayson." He grabbed a lab coat and headed out of the room, she followed closely behind

By worth hog it took them half an hour to reach the dry-dock. When they arrived they quickly transferred to a pelican and boarded the Savanna. As soon as they set down on the savanna, the Technician began running her through some simple diagnostics. And explaining how the armor worked. When she finished the diagnostic tests, the colonel walked in.

"Spartan, this mission is simple. When we get to reach, you'll drop to the surface in a HEV; from there you will investigate unusual covenant activity. It seems that the covenant is setting up a rather elaborate field base. If you find anything, anything at all you are to bring it to Sword base, from there Halsey will provide you with further orders."

"Is that everything?"

"Everything that ONI would tell us." The colonel stuck his handout to shake hers "It was an honor knowing you, good luck."

"Spartans never die, so you shouldn't sound like you sending me to die." She said as she shook his hand.

With that Aella left the room, and swung to the launching station for the drop pods, she was given a few cross glances from the ODST who were waiting there, but she paid them no mind as she grabbed a DMR and a sniper rifle, headed into her pod, and waited for the operator to fire her down to reach. When the operator shut the hatch on the pod and moved it into the firing position, she sat in the pod in the dim light of the computers. The pod shuttered for a half second before it was fired down words. As she fell, she allowed a brief second for part of her mind to wander to the dreamy hazy time of yesteryear when she was a child with her parents, before the attack on her home on Edranus II. The pods bone jarring deceleration brought her fully back to the present, the pod angled slightly before coming to a violent stop. She hurried grabbed her guns and kicked out the pod door.

She found the pod was wedged between two large trees both easily 8 ft. in diameter; she jumped the 3 ft. to the ground from where the pod crashed. She checked the Wrist mounted GPS for the waypoint she was to head to, the way point marked a cliff ledge, about a mile away from the base that would give her a good view of what the covenant were doing. According to the GPS she was a good 40 miles away, from the way point. And a good 300 miles away from sword base.

_Better get walking_ she thought to her as she began to work her way east. She stuck largely to the dense wooded area, as she attempted to keep out of sight. She made it about a mile before she reached her first covenant patrol, two elite minors, a jackal sniper and several grunts. As much as she would have liked to kill the lot of them, if the patrol didn't make it back, the covenant would know something up, and that would only make her job harder. After considering her options, she decided that it would be best to let this patrol slip by, she pressed herself against the nearest tree that could provide adequate cover, and timed her movements so she stayed out of sight, as she went from behind one tree to the next, effortlessly and soon as she was sure the patrol was long gone, she began working her way east. She made it about another 10 miles before anything else interesting happened. When she stumbled upon this she immediately started to record it.

Before her 6 elite majors and dozens of jackals, skirmishers, and grunts all knelt before a hologram of a prophet, the religious leaders of the covenant, and while she couldn't understand what it was they were saying, she guessed by the sound of it, she would have to say it was a prayer of sorts, the prophet was leading the chant and the assembled mass responded on occasion.

This was too much for her to pass up; she would take out this group. Before she left the ship, she took a few small high powered explosive chargers, and put them in the tactical soft case, at the time she wasn't sure she would need them, or even use them. But now she was glad she took them. She worked quickly and quietly, and rigged the explosives to some of the largest trees around, and by piles of loose rock, she flipped the switch on the remote detonator, and a thunderous explosion shook the ground. She looked back and saw that several trees were blown into the clearing, along with a ton of rocks, effectively burying, and the assembled mass of covenant. She knew she basically just announced her arrival, to the covenant, but her HEV would have been found sooner or later, so it was merely a matter of time, now she had to move. She booked it to the cliff ledge that the way point marked, along the way she avoided a patrol that was hurrying along to the source of the large explosion. She checked her surroundings for a good hiding place, where she could watch the base, seeing nothing on the cliff ledge she looked down the cliff. She spotted a ledge large enough for her to lie, on, it also had a few bushes growing on it to hide her from anyone looking down and spotting her. She quickly climbed down the ledge, positioned herself under the bushes, and peered through the scope on her sniper rifle, at the base.

The Intel was right, this base was defiantly different than most covenant field bases, mostly because it looked like it was meant to be a permanent encampment, she saw what she assumed were hangers for their vehicles, and barracks, and a massive command building towards the center, there were also several engineers floating around the field base, constructing vehicles, or deconstructing other damaged equipment and repairing it. She captured the images through her helmets built in camera, she saw covenant practicing shooting and close combat. She watched, as she saw two elites pull out a pair of energy swords and begin dueling. She also tried to see if she could get any good images on how they replaced energy cores on their weapons, but unfortunately for her, whenever one of the weapons ran out of power, they brought it into one of the building and came out with a fresh one. She still got useful information from what she was seeing, in terms of covenant tactics. One thing that she saw that she found appalling, was how they treated the engineers. They were treated like slaves, and dirt, she wasn't sure if it was the same throughout the entire covenant or just this group, but she didn't think it would take much persuading to get an engineer to defect, if anyone ever could isolate one.

She watched the covenant movement for another 10 hours, before she saw anything new. A phantom drop ship flew down into the base, and dropped off no less than 20 elites, she almost mistook them for zealots, but upon closer inspection she saw, that while they wore red armor, the glowing orange, panels that protrude from there armor, separated them from any other know class of elite, she knew pictures and video recordings were useful, but a body would be a whole other story. If she was going to bring Halsey one of these elites she would only have one shot at it. She spent the next few hours memorizing the patrols in the base. She worked her way down the cliff face, quickly occasionally just jumping down to the next ledge. She climbed over the bases outer wall, when the patrol shifted; she immediately hid behind a group of plasma coils, she waited until she saw a group of elites leave the hanger after a phantom flew in. once the path was clear, she sprinted toward the hanger, she hid behind a bunch of broken ship parts, she caught her breath as she planed her next move.

_The easiest way out of here would be to fly, but could I get a phantom out of here without being noticed? Better yet could I even fly a Phantom? _She thought to herself, she noticed an Engineer float lazily into a phantom, through the gravity lift, that seemed to be out of commission, the phantom hovered a good 8 feet above the ground, she had an idea, it was a long shot but if it worked she would be out of here before anybody knew she was here. She sprinted from her hiding place, and jumped up grabbing the lip of the entrance to the ship, pulled herself in, and moved into the shadows, as quietly as she could. She saw that the engineer was accompanied by two grunts, which seemed to be, displeased with the engineer's entrance. She snuck over to both grunts and positioned herself just behind the two of them, she lashed out grabbed the grunts by their heads and smashed them together, she felt there skulls crack and break from the force of the impact. She than pushed the grunts bodies to the side, and cautiously approached the engineer. It quickly turned and faced her, she could tell it was startled as it began to whine and float to the corner.

"No, no, Sush its ok, I won't hurt you." She said calmly and quietly. "Look see," she reached behind her, and pulled her sniper rifle free, and placed it on the ground along with her DMR. "I need your help."

The engineer calmed down and floated towards her, she tensed up when one of its tentacles moved towards her helmets head cameras. The engineer removed the camera, disassembled it, prodded through its parts, put it back together and replaced it on her helmet, within 3 minutes. It faced her once again and cocked its head to the side as if to say "what do you need, and what do I get for it?"

"I need to get out of here after I get something, but I'm not entirely sure I can get out of here without flying one of these, which I'm not sure I can do. I'll take you with me, set you free."

The engineer withdrew for a second before pointing its worm like head at a device stuck to it; it pantomimed pulling and pointed at it again.

"Pull that off? Sure." She said as she slowly approached the engineer, she pulled the device off it carefully, and tossed it to the side, "so you'll help me?"

It nodded in response

"Good, give me a second I'll get what I need."

She jumped from the ship and left the engineer to its own devices, she peered around the frame of the entry way, outside she saw two of the strange elites from earlier. The two elites looked like they were ready for a fight at any given time, she waited for the elite's to look at the hanger, when their eyes passed over the door, stepped out of the frame, for a second before ducking back in, she was quick enough to let them catch but a glimpse of her. The two armored elites, approached the hanger, she jumped up the gravity lift of the phantom she was going to take out of here, the elites entered the hanger, and she watched them from the shadows of the phantoms interior, the elites ignited there energy swords, as they checked the hanger one drew close to the phantom she was hiding in.

"Pst hey up here." She whispered to the nearby elite.

Drawn to her voice, he approached the broken gravity lift. Aella hooked her legs over the lip and swung down legs, she wrapped one hand quickly around the elites throat crushing it, before pulling out her knife and ramming it through the helmet, the elite went limp, she hooked her arms under its and hoisted him up. She grabbed the elite's energy sword, and prepared to repeat the process once again. When she flipped down she met the elite face to face, planted the unignited blade into its chest, and chuckled as his face twisted with rage, he was about tablet out a rage filled howl, when she ignited the blade, it tore through his chest and it went limp. She pulled the other elite up with her and headed to the engineer, dripping the blade in the process.

"Hey get this thing out of here." She said as she hit a glowing panel on the wall of the phantom that sealed it. The engineer moved the ship out of the hanger.

_So far things have been going quite well, almost too well, with my luck, we'll be found out._

Unfortunately for her, she was right; as the phantom ascended the banshees that were flying about took a formation and flow straight for the phantom. She hit the pannle on the wall and the mount for the turret slid out, she grabbed the turret and aimed it at the oncoming banshees, and opened fire. The plasma bolts struck the oncoming banshees and destroyed them one at a time.

"hey pinky, can you give me a hand with these, she said as an oncoming fuel rod blast forced her to tear the turret from its base and take cover behind the sealed walls of the phantom, the green plasma smashed against the hull of the phantom, causing it to glow red, she came out from cover, and opened fire. The engineer whined and pointed to a second control console, near where it was working. She hurried to the control console, and began to work the controls, a targeting monitor appeared, and she opened fire with the heavy concussive blasts from the phantoms main gun. The cannon made short work of the banshees but not before they did some serious damage to the engines and hull. The engineer did what it could to get the ship going but when it exited the ship, she knew she better get going, she grabbed one of the elites bodies, and jumped from the ship, she knew what to do to survive the impact at this speed, she over pressurized the hydro elastic gel, and smashed into a thick tree trunk the elites body smashed into her almost immediately after, the two bodies fell to the ground in an entangled mess. She felt like she broke every bone in her body. She checked her GPS, she was about 5 miles away from the Sword base, and she activated her com link

"This is Spartan 273 requesting immediate pick up, Sword base do you copy?"

"Rodger, pelican inbound."

_Wonder where pinky went? _She thought to herself as she pulled herself over to the trunk of a near buy tree, and almost on cue, she heard the whine of an engineer the engineer floated down and floated next to her. She noticed it was trying to pull the glove of her right hand. She removed it and stretched her hand. The engineer did something to the circuits in the glove, and passed it back, the shield monitor, recharged faster than normal.

"So where are you going?"

The engineer shrugged, and floated around the tree and looked closely at her visor. Before backing off.

"Here knock yourself out." She passed a clip from one of her rifles to the engineer.

The two of them waited for the pelican to arrive; when it did she tossed the corpses into the hold, and waited for the engineer to float on. When the pelican took off the engineer began rummaging through the hold. When the pelican arrived at sword base she slung the corpse over her shoulder and walked into the base. When she dropped the body onto Halsey's lab floor, it was easy to say there was mutual uncertainty, and even more when the engineer floated into the room, politely whining as it followed a technician that was moving in a new terminal.

"Well I was expecting photos and blurry video feeds and I get an unknown type of elite, and an engineer." Doctor Halsey said as she viewed the elite and looked at the video feed.

"So, what are my orders?"

"You're going to join the garrison at castle base."

'Yes ma'am


	3. Pricilla

She hid, embracing the darkness's deepest shadows, nobody saw her, and nobody could see her. The she was nothing but slight distortion in the shadows invisible to all but the keenest of eyes. But even here the voices screamed in her head, they clawed at the deepest reaches of her mind, no matter where she hid the voices and cries of agony always found her. They screeched and wailed, like countless nails scraping against a chalk board. The sounds were driving her insane, driving her further past the point of no return she had passed so long ago. Tears welled up in her eyes and she began to cry. She moaned in agony, but like the screams the moan turned into al all out feral cry of pain. Her screams added to the maelstrom of madness in her head. The sounds were unbearable threated to drown her but a voice cut through the agony she was in.

"Hey, Shush, everything alright, remember it's all in your head, noting's in here except you and me."

Her wails cut down back to a pitiful moaning, inside her head the voices quieted their screams little by little until she could block them out, but they still snaked their way through the deepest reaches of her mind. "Sorry Apollo," she whispered to the voice that had cut through the madness just moments ago. She blinked the tears out of her eyes and the HUD came back into focus on the inside of her Mk. V MJOLNIR helmet. She stood up and walked out of the shadow. Her black MJOLNIR armor was covered in tons of bullet holes, and slashes, the commando shoulder plate she wore was riddled with impact scars from bullets. She slowly made her way to the back of the cave, listening to Apollo the smart AI that was the only think keeping her sane right now, she found the large flat rock, that she called her bed, and grabbed a fists sized lump of cloth, she unwrapped it, and pulled out a slightly smaller chunk of a purple crystal, she stared at held it gingerly as if it would break at any moment. She let out a pained sigh and wrapped the crystal up again.

"Hey, Apollo?" she pushed herself into the corner of her 'bed' pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "Maybe we should go back to them; they could help me, stop the voices, and the ghosts."

"No, no, remember they let you down they killed your squad, and nearly killed your, they are bad people remember that." The AI said as her shoulders slumped slightly.

"Right, are they near her, I could do with some _fun_." She broke out into a twisted grin. Her voice was no longer weak; instead it was burning with rage. "Maybe than the Itching with stop" she said as she gripped her left shoulder, her mind flashed back to the night that Apollo mentioned.

It was dark; four Spartans moved quickly through the dense underbrush, they ignored the thick vegetation as they moved. She was in the lead, clad in MJOLNIR armor, her team in SPI armor; they appeared to be strange phantasmal specters following in her wake. They all moved underneath the shadow of a Covenant Corvette, a large Colom of light blue light descended from mid-ship, she signaled the team to stop and take cover, she pulled out the M99 special application scoped rifle she had been given for the mission looked where the ships Gravity lift made contact with the ground. She saw three humanoid aliens touch down, and walk out from the glowing light. Elites, the covenants strongest warriors, they were smart, strong, and fast. Two of them matched the armor configuration for the Spec ops elite, and the third was a ship master clad in gold armor, she noticed a slight distortion behind the ship master, he had a body guard following him in active camouflage. She signaled and they kept moving. They didn't have a clear line of sight. Taking out their target would be too risky at this range they only hand one shot. They continued advancing as quiet as ghosts until they reached what she considered- a good range, now they just needed to wait for the right time. they sat there for about 4 hours as the ship master moved around the camp that was at the base of the gravity lift, the ship master was beginning to head, as he and his guards made their way back to the ship, he was exposed it as only for a few second but it was long enough to fire off two shots.

The ship master lurched forward; the shots tore through his shields, and then its head. Now they ran the group wasn't armed for heavy combat, just pair of DMR and two MA5B assault rifles. They knew the instant that the shots were taken all hell would break loose, the covenant would seek revenge, but without the ship master ONI had hoped there would be a large enough delay before the covenant got the cruse up and running, hopefully long enough for the long swords to strike.

"This is Spartan-013 requesting immediate evac, objective complete." She said as she began to hurry away with her squad

"Negative 013 you'll have to find your own way out, all pelicans drop ships in the area are currently unavailable."

They streaked through the underbrush her team now appearing as a dark green blur behind her as their SPI armor matched the color and texture of the terrain behind them. She heard the sound of approaching phantoms and banshees; she signaled the team to ready themselves for a fight once the phantoms search lights illuminated her. She fired off two more shots, the shots tore through the antigravity pods on the end of one of the banshees stubby wings, it crashed to the ground and burst into a crumple heap of burning metal and plasma, she doped the clip from her rifle and quickly reloaded it, taking aim at the phantoms main cannon, and began to fire, her squad had begun to take out the other two banshees. It took most of their ammunition to destroy the banshees, and destroy the phantoms main cannon. The phantoms sides opened up and t four elite kill squads dropped from the phantom. Three of the squads rushed her teammates; the fourth got in-between her and her squad. Three of the squad's members pulled out energy swords, and circled around her, the fourth a plasma rifle. She pulled the trigger on her rife, the last bullet tore through the plasma rifle wielding elites head, one of the elites rushed her, attempting to cut her in two, she side stepped, and grabbed its extended arm, twisted into and swept its legs out from under it. She planted the rifle barrel in its mouth, and forced it through into the ground. The elite gurgled before it died. She pulled out her pistol, and began to fire at the other members of the kill squad, but the rounds bounced off their shields. The elites attacked her timing their strikes attempting to catch her from behind, stifled from her squad mates, reached her ears, she wanted to risk a quick look but she couldn't. A sharp blow to her chest pushed her from her feet and knocked her to the ground. The elites placed a strange type of hand cuffs around her arms, and legs before dragging her towards the phantom, she saw the rest of her squad was captured all were still alive, but they were also bound. They were brought back to the ship, and lined up on their knees, arms bound behind them. An Elite general approached them, energy sword in hand. He walked up to the Spartan furthest from her, kicked him over, and pushed the blade through his chest, the process was repeated two more times, each death tore her to pieces, they were her squad, her brothers and sisters, she couldn't watch but she was unable to tear her eyes from the Spartan who sat next to her. The other Spartan depolarized her visor and looked at her, and said one last thing before her head was removed from her shoulders.

"It was an honor serving with you Ma'am."

Her fellow soldier's last words echoed in her mind over and over. She failed them, it was all her fault, she wasn't strong enough to protect… no she just wasn't strong enough. Kurt Ambrose told them that they would need to be strong, that everything they did from the time they started until the day they died would test their strength. She failed; she failed herself, her team, and her teacher, all because she wasn't strong enough.

"I ran the numbers, statistically speaking nothing you could have done, would have changed the outcome." Apollo's voice came through her helmets speakers.

"I'm initiating Cole Protocol, I will destroy myself the second your vitals flat line, I will stay with you till the end." The AI paused for a minute before he spoke again "it truly has been and honor working with you."

"Spartan 013, this is Lt. Ambrose, we got rescue birds incoming, ETA in 8 minutes?"

"I'm the last one, they killed everybody. And I'm next, sorry I wasn't strong enough."

"Don't worry…." Ambrose was cut off. The covenant seemed to have blocked any communications Traffic in the area. The elite kicked her over onto her back, then she saw a hunter approach her, the cuffs on her arms were removed and the hunter pinned her arms beneath its massive foot.

"you, Demon, you were the one who slew the ship master, for that you will die, but you will die with shame, the shame knowing that it is your fault that your pathetic race fell. Tell us everything we need to know, and your death will be swift." Said the elite

"Like hell I will, take your questions and shove em' up your scaly black ass." She spat back at him, knowing that she let her team die, was one thing but she wouldn't be responsible for losing the war. She attempted to worm her arm out from underneath herself but to no avail.

The elite nodded to the hunter and the hunter pressed down on her chest, her armor groaned in protests and so did she. But she wouldn't give in. the elite continued for another 4 minutes but he lost patience.

"Enough I'll leave you to die slowly," he pulled out her left arm from under her body, and laid it out flat, the hunter placed the point of the shield on her left shoulder and began to push it down into her arm. Her energy shields flared for a second and collapsed, the hunter pushed the shield deep into her flesh. The heavy metal shield stopped at the bone, by now she was screaming in agony, a few tears streamed down her face, when it couldn't sever her bone it withdrew the shield and the elite whipped out an energy sword, sliced through the bone, grabbed her now useless arm, and in one swift movement yanked it free from her body, she was beyond screaming in agony, now she was a little girl again, crying out in pain, wishing for the end to come.

She remembered that Kurt had shown up about a minute after the elite had wrenched her arm off. He appeared out of nowhere and destroyed the assembled covenant forces, with almost godlike skill. She managed to hold on long enough to get put in Cryo, and later had her arm flash cloned. However, the trauma from that night, the physical pain of getting her arm torn off, and the psychological of feeling she failed everybody that mattered to her, and nearly dying, left her mentally unstable. She developed drastic Bi-polar like mood and personality shifts. Her AI Apollo was left with her to be a caretaker and councilor. She had spent all of two years in a mental health facility before she was released for active duty again, during that time Apollo grew attached to her. He would make sure she survived, even if it meant betraying the UNSC. After her release she was no longer the Spartan she used to be, prior to the incident she was regarded as _The Best_ Spartan in Alpha Company, but she lost all that made her great on that one night. Granted she still was far superior than your average solder, but she had no heart for battle any more, she was distancing herself from everything. Than one day, 5 years after the incident, Apollo who had already been a few months into rampancy, convinced her to desert, she simply vanished after one of her missions. The UNSC wanted her back, They Still want her back.

UNSC Frigate Red Scar was in orbit above a very earth like planet, only difference being there was more water. the captain of the ship stood addressing a lone Spartan III in brand new MJOLNIR armor composed of an Scout helmet, the default chest piece, a Recon right solder, and an ODST style guard on the left, and Fj Para kneepads, a tactical soft case was strapped to her thy, the armor was a olive green color, with steel grey details. The helmet was tucked under the Spartans arm, exposing her face; she had black hair that was buzzed short. Her skin was fairly pail. Her right eye was an icy blue, while she left was a darker green.

"I take it your aware that A-013 who deserted several years ago was picked up on our scanners when we were scanning for covenant loyalist forces that may have been left alive on the planet after the recent battle here. The armors signature was detected on an island roughly 730 square miles large about 1000 miles off the coast of the main land. We were unable to get a clear lock on her position so you'll have to do some searching. Several years ago, A-013 was nearly killed on a mission. She was forced to watch as her entire squad was executed, before she had her arm cut off. The doctors say that the physical and psychological pain of the night caused her to become unstable. She deserted not long after; we assume that this is because of her AI Apollo, who by now probably "died" being a Smart AI and easily 9 years old. Your job is to bring her back."

"Yes sir." Replied the Spartan

"Very well, Lt. your dismissed."

The lieutenant walked out of the captain's quarters, and headed down to the hanger, a pelican drop ship brought her down to the planet's surface, and she grabbed a battle rifle and an assault rifle from the pelican's storage compartment above the seats, and slid a fresh clip into her Battle Rifle. She jumped out of the pelican when it was hovering just above the ground.

"Sir, this is Spartan A-070, any idea where I should start searching for 13?"

"We picked up a faint signal from her armor, about 30 miles north of your position, inside the dormant volcano. There are some entrances on the northern side. Check in the caves, it's likely she's hiding out in them. Also be aware there has been some Insurrection com traffic, it looks like they may have a base in your area."

"What should I do if I run across them searching for 13?"

"Eliminate them, and retrieve any useful data. The same with any of the loyalist's equipment retrieve every bit you can if you come across any."

"Roger." She began her trek into the jungle the filled most of the island.

The twisted roots, and branches didn't impede her in the slightest, she worked through the brush headed further into the deep forest within the center of the island. As she worked her way through the brush further and further into the forest, she began to make the trek up the mountain. Ten minutes after she started her climb she heard the war cries of brutes. She quickly yet carefully moved towards the sound.

She saw four brutes, about 30 grunts and, a dozen jackals, trading fire with about 25 insurrectionist soldiers who were taking cover behind trees and large boulders. She stayed crouched by the base of a tree she brush providing significant cover so she would remain unseen. She pulled out the flash bang grenade, and one of the spike grenades. She tossed the flash bang into the center of the battle field, and tossed she spike grenade into the mass of grunts, sticking it onto ones methane tank. The flash bang went off, followed closely by the spike grenade. The bright flash blinded the majority of the soldiers and covenant, save for those who were quick enough to shield their eyes. The spike grenade went off and tore through the grunt's, rupturing and igniting the methane tanks. A few of the exploding methane tanks managed to kill two jackals.

She whipped out her DMR and began quickly shooting into the crowd of covenant. The armor piercing rounds made quick work of the jackal. She saw the insurrectionists begin to fire more aggressively. She watched as the number of covenant began to quickly diminish, the troops began to push their way past the cover as the last few covenant fell. They stood in the middle of the field cheering now that the covenant lie dead at their feat, some of the more zealous ones began to cheer and fire shots into the bodies of brutes.

"Damn fine work from our back up, right Captain." Said one of the troopers that walked forward from the 5 troopers that remained. "Common get out here guys."

She grinned as she pulled out another two frags, she pulled the pins from the grenades and held them for an extra second before she tossed them, and they bounced of the chests of two troopers before they exploded before they hit the ground. The insurrectionist troopers were blown apart. She policed the bodies quickly checking for any useful gear. She pulled a shotgun off the body of one of the soldiers she also picked about 7 dragons breath shotgun shells from the troopers belt along with 33 normal shotgun shells. She remembered when Kurt told them about the uses from the shells she figured she may yet find a use for them. Or at the very least they may be useful in the caves. She began heading up the mountain once again. She found a small cavern in the side of the mountain. She began going through the caves carefully and methodically searching every single chamber and tunnel. According to the maps of the mountain caverns she had searched nearly 50 percent of the cave system. However unknown to her she was being watched the whole time from the shadows.

"Apollo, is she looking for me, does she want to take me back to them?" 13 whispered as she stalked the other Spartan.

"yes, and if you go back I can promise that sooner or later, that _that _incident will repeat itself, all you are to them is a disposable hero."

"I am not DISPOSEABLE!" she roared, no longer caring if she was seen. 13 lunged from the shadows her fist drawn back.

Her shout alerted 70 who spun around to meet her assailant head on. She brought her arms up to block the punch, however she was far from quick enough the punch collided with her head and sent her sailing. She hit the ground and rolled, using the momentum she rolled to her feet. She pulled back her fist and went to slam it into the stomach of her attacker, however 13 caught her with a round house kick before stepping through her defense and catching her in the jaw with a powerful uppercut. She stumbled backwards and was pulled back by her arm, only to have 13's fist collide with her head again. She stumbled back disoriented by the repetitive blows to her head. She quickly shook it off before 13 had the chance to follow up with anything else. She spun to face 13and raised her fists in defense. She was still being forced to remain defensive she could tell that 13 was well out of practice but that didn't put her any closer to her skill level.

"I'LL NEVER GO BACK!" 13 roared as she let loose an onslaught of relentless attacks, most of them plowed through her opponent's defenses.

"Remember, she's also a Spartan. Just take her out, BREAK HER NECK!" Apollo roared into her ear.

"You don't have to tell me twice Apollo."

13 slammed her fist into 70's stomach before twisting her around and gripped her head she prepared to deliver the sharp twist that would end her opponent's life. However 70 wasn't going to go easily. She reached back and grabbed13 beneath her shoulders thrust her hips back and knocked 13 off balance, before flipping her over her shoulder. And whipping out the shotgun she lashed out with the butt of her gun. Catching 13 on the side of her head, 13's head snapped back from the force of the blow. She pulled back the butt of her gun and smashed it into her faceplate. The faceplate cracked, she quickly smashed the shotgun into her opponent's stomach, before landing a powerful round house kick on 13. She quickly attached the shotgun onto one of the magnetic strips on her back before she caught 13 and forced her into a full nelson.

"IM NOT GOING BACK!" roared 13 as she struggled to get free, doing everything she could.

"Why not, why don't you want to go back?"

"Because I won't simply be used as a disposable hero, I will live and I will make them pay for thinking that they could just throw our lives away. I'll never go back to them."

"Who said anything about treating the Spartans as disposable Heroes?"

"Apollo told me, he hacked into the UNSC's network and read the files on the Spartan III's we were considered disposable, we were to be used to keep throwing Spartans at impossible objectives until the covenant fell from being overwhelmed.

"Wait when did Apollo tell you this?"

"Three years ago"

"So I'm assuming he died."

"Why should he have died?"

"He's nine years old, he should have "died" like most Smart AI's do when they go through Rampancy"

"_Not quite, I'm still her, and I'm not leaving, not as long as I am needed by her. If she still needs me I will remain._" Said Apollo through the helmets speakers

"Spartan has you encounter A-013?"

"Subduing her right now, I'm about to administer the tranquilizer I need to talk to you about Apollo later."

"Very well, I'm sending a pelican to your coordinates."

"Rodger." Said 70

70 forced 13 to the ground and pinned her to the ground. She reached in to the soft case on her thy and pulled out a metal case and removed a syringe from the case, she pulled 13's helmet off, and exposed 13's face which was pushed into the ground, she had rich dark skin and light brown eyes angelic face, she looked much like a dark skinned female angle of death. Her black hair was sloppily cut with a knife. She pulled the plastic protective cover off the syringes needle and injected the sedative into 13's neck. All the while 13 was thrashing violently attempting to struggle.

"DAM YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH!

"I'll tell you one thing, what Apollo said is true, but it was said out of context. When you go back to the UNSC hopefully we can get you the help you need."

"_So now what, are you just going to destroy me?_"

"No, something's not right with you; you don't seem like a rampant AI, the scientists will want to get a look at you."

"_Before you take us back, she might cooperate if you get her rock._"

"A rock?"

"_To be more precise, a gemstone, an amethyst I believe, and a rather large one at that._"

"Where is it?"

"Keep_ heading down this corridor about 50 meters down, there should be a small side passage. There should be a small cloth bundle that is on a stone slab take it with you. If she tries to kill you again, than that might just calm her down._" Said Apollo "_I assume that you will be removing me from the helmet_"

"What's her name again?"

"_Pricilla."_

With that 70 grabbed Pricilla's helmet removed the Ai chip from the back and placed it in the case that she stored the syringe in, before putting Pricilla's helmet on again before she hoisted Pricilla onto her shoulders and began walking towards the entrance. When she reached the exit of the cave she started to signal the pelican a loud grunting breathing reached her ears, and she turned in time to see a brute chieftain in suit covered armor wielding a gravity hammer jump from a ledge above her, ready to crush her skull in. she wouldn't have enough time to drop Pricilla, grab her gun. She could only defend herself. She managed to free one arm quickly enough to grab the shaft of the gravity hammer before it crushed her, the shear force behind it nearly pushed her to her knees. She felt Pricilla shift than noticed that a shot gun barrel protruded from under her arm, Pricilla was conscious enough to grab the shotgun of her back and plant the barrel of the shotgun in the brute's chest, and fired. The slug that was loaded in the gun was one of the seven dragons breath rounds she picked up, the slug tore through the minimal armor the brute wore, the flames charred the stone wall behind the brute, the primate like alien slumped to its knees and dropped. A second later the shotgun clattered to the floor, Pricilla having passed out again. The pelican dropped down so that it was in easy jumping distance even with Pricilla over her shoulders.

"We're in, let's get out of here"

Pricilla had not gone entirely quietly, she attempted to escape 4 times before they made the slip space jump. After the fourth she was put into Cryo sleep. 70 walked back to the colonel's room so she could be debriefed.

One year later

She sat in her room, though a cell would be more accurate. The voices didn't claw at her mind any more, though the silence from the room and from her head was almost more maddening than the wails of the voices as they clawed their way through her mind. She missed Apollo, she missed him dearly, she quickly saw the fact that he only told her part of the truth when it came to the Spartan III, he still was the only person who was with her during her years of isolation. The silence drew her back to the emptiness of her mind; she dearly wanted someone to talk to. She found it lonely to be left alone with just her thoughts. She couldn't relax in her cell her skin crawled, her body ached for physical activity, and her mind begged for a task to tackle, no Spartan was meant for this. Action she was begging for action, she needed to do something, Run, Spar, climb a tree anything but sit in this room and do nothing. She wasn't ignorant prone to mild aggression, by Spartan III standards but according to her charts fit for active duty. And as long as the doctors kept finding new reasons for her to stay, it would be a long time before she even got out of this infernal room.

She looked at the table in the corner of the room, the shapeless lump of cloth sat containing one of the two things she was allowed to keep, her other keepsake was around her neck like it always was, the grey chip that once held her longtime friend.

She began to stew in the emptiness of her own mind when an explosion shook the mental hospital she was in. her instincts kicked in she threw herself behind the table in her room, she knew what it was, it was a plasma based explosion, and a large one likely from a wraith or drop ship. She needed to get out, she had to fight. She may not entirely trust the UNSC but she was still a Sparta, she would fight to protect innocents from insurrectionists, covenant or flood, at any personal cost. She felt oddly at ease, this is where she belonged.

She saw interns and residents, and patients sprinting some to others away from the origin of the explosion, she could here plasma fire, from small arms, and gunshots from standard UNSC weapons. She moved to the door and pounded on the window, her cell was reinforced Spartan proofed as the doctors called it. She couldn't just break out; she saw the psychiatrist that worked with her sprinting down the hall heading to her door He quickly began disengaging the multitude of locks. As the last lock disengaged the doctor stepped back and she pushed the heavy door open.

"thanks." She said as she shifted the faded mint green patient pajamas. She did not relish going into battle dressed like this but she did what she had to.

Pricilla sprinted down the hallway as quickly as she could; she weaved her way nimbly through the torrent of people who were either running towards or away from the source of the explosion. Just as she rounded one last corner the familiar roar of a brute reached her ear. As she rounded the corner she saw three brutes two of them were chieftain and one was a war chief if she remembered their armor configuration correctly scattered around them was a small assortment of about 10grunts and jackals, standing just before the brutes was a elite in mismatched armor made from what appeared to be battle field salvage, the elite was also badly cut up and bruised a large scar ran across his face and down his neck. He wielded a plasma rifle in one hand and a red energy sword in the other. At the sight of the attacking covenant he blood boiled. She wanted more than anything to tear them apart but, without any armor or weapons it would be foolish to say the least. She hid back behind the corner and looked around she spotted the body of a police officer across the hall, he had a pistol in a holster on his hip, judging by the plasma burns on his body and the hole in the adjacent wall he was killed in the explosion. She sprinted across the hall and rolled behind the adjacent wall. She armed herself with the fallen officer's magnum pistols and looked around the corner.

The grunts and jackals had begun moving towards where she was taking cover. She stepped around the corner and emptied the clip, each shot left a single neat hole in the forehead of a grunt or a jackal. She dropped the empty pistol and dove forward reaching for a needle rifle that was once carried by a dead jackal. She grabbed the gun and opened fire killing the last of the startled grunts and jackals. She turned and saw the elite and the brutes bring their weapons to the ready, the elite sprinted at her and lunged out with is energy sword. She stepped to the side and wrapped her hand around the elites hand and, she placed her free hand on its elbow and violently pushed against it snapping its arm at the elbow. The elite involuntarily released the energy sword from his grip, she sweped the elite' legs out from under him and plunged his blade into his abdomen. The other brutes were on top of her by then, she ducked under a swing from the war chieftain, side stepped around it and swung the energy sword in a ark cutting it from shoulder to shoulder, she than spun around pulled back the sword and thrust it into the chest of the second brute, she twisted the blade inside the body of the brute, than in one viscous twist, spun in a circle while pulling the blade free, sliced the head off the final brute. She deactivated the energy sword and stuffed the weapon into the pants pocket.

She turned in time to see that the wraith that blew the hole in the wall turns to face her. She dove out of the way as a large ball of bright blue erupted from the wraiths main gun. She distantly heard the sound of two jackhammer missile launchers firing. The four missiles collided with the covenant tank and it erupted into a ball of blue and purple flames and twisted metal. She walked through the hole in the wall and saw a team of 4ODST approaching two had jackhammer missile launchers and assault rifles, another had a shotgun and a Battle rifle, and the last carried an assault rifle and a shotgun. The two jackhammer wielding ODST were ordered to check to see if the hallway was clear. Meanwhile the leader of the squad approached Pricilla

"Hey you there, are you alright?" asked the commander as he depolarized his face plate, he spoke calmly and evenly.

She saluted him as he continued to approach,

"Hey commander the covenant are all dead, probably a few grunts left in the building but somebody killed three brutes and an elite." said one of the ODST from inside the building."

"Ma'am did you see the soldier that did this?" asked the squad leader. "We need to find him incase he's in trouble."

"Sir, I killed the covenant here." She said, though quickly after she heard the squad leader sigh.

"Reynolds, get her inside and to a doctor she's obviously completely nuts."

The ODST walked over to her and grabbed her by the wrist and began to try to walk her away. She planted her feet firmly on the ground and wrenched her arm free of the man's grip like it was noting. Before she fished out her dog tags, which identified her as a Spartan. The ODST commander immediately snapped to attention.

"Ma'am I apologies I didn't know."

"I understand, nobody thinks a Spartan could end up in a place like this." She crossed her arms and turned to face the hospital. "I was in the far left wing of the building I didn't see anything on my way here, the right wing is where the staff stays and in the event of an emergency it locks down, so it would be safe to assume no covenant got in. you should let command know that I'm out, we don't need them soiling their shiny white suits, thinking I've gone rogue again."

"Yes Ma'am." Replied the squad leader. "Command the psyche ward was cleared out."

"Already? But you just arrived?" replied a male voice on the other end of the comm.

"We didn't clear it out, one of the patients did."

"What?"

"Yah the Spartan that was staying there, she cleared them out she's here with us what should we have her do?"

"Good, If her doctors let her out than she's in the clear, have her stand by and wait for Spartan 070 who will be arriving by pelican shortly."

"Yes sir" the squad leader turned to face Pricilla "your to wait for a fellow Spartan to arrive from their I'm not sure were going to check the right wing in the meantime."

"alright." Replied Pricilla as she began to police the dead covenant bodies for any use full weapons. She waited for an hour, as she waited she examined the covenant weaponry she gathered from the bodies a pelican carrying a large box roughly the size of a scorpion tank the pelican touched down and Spartan 070 stepped out the back.

"It's been a while Pricilla, I hope you've forgiven me for knocking you out and dragging you back." Said 070 feigning a nervous tone

"I won't hold it against you. "She paused for a second "But when we get to the ship were sparing." She replied and she held her hand out to shake her fellow Spartans "what's in the box?"  
>"Your armor," 070 opened the side of the container and inside was her suit of Mjolnir armor and the machine that was used to fit the overly complicated armor on the Spartan. She striped down and stepped onto the platform.<p>

"So how does it feel to be back?" she asked as she leaned against the wall of the container

"I feel like I'm Home" she said as the machine began attaching the armor.


End file.
